Disclosing InventionsInvention is the first formal step in the commercialization process. All inventions made by faculty, staff, and students must be disclosed to the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University (CTL). When you disclose the invention to CTL, a licensing professional will be assigned to manage the invention and will be in contact with you shortly.

Tangible research materials are tangible items produced during the course of academic activities and includes, among other things, biological materials such as clones, plasmids, gene fragments, DNA probes, hybridomas or other cell lines, transgenic animals and plant breeding materials.

To ensure maximum protection rights for your invention, it is important to file an invention disclosure form before any public disclosure such as a public presentation. The invention disclosure form should be submitted with a written description of the invention (additional manuscripts, explanatory drawings, and supporting data are also very helpful).

Cornell Technology Acceleration & Maturation Fund (CTAM)Cornell has various resources to help with technology commercialization. One such resource is the Cornell Technology Acceleration and Maturation (CTAM) Fund. The CTAM Fund’s objective is to advance select technologies in order to facilitate their further development towards commercialization.